Photography

La Sierra High School

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Dora and I just returned from an astrophotography workshop in Charleston, SC. The workshop was presented by Mountains to Sea Photography Workshops and presented by photographers Tommy White and Alistair Nichol. This is the third workshop we have participated in. The Milky Way is just starting to be visible again and we hoped to capture it.

Dora and I recently participated in the Autumn Waterfall photography workshop hosted by Mountains to Sea Workshops. The workshop was led by professional photographers Alistair Nicol and Tommy White. The photograph featured above is Shoal Creek Falls and was taken at Living Waters.

Although the workshop officially started on Friday afternoon October 9, Dora and I arrived a day early to get the lay of the land and setup camp. Several of us were sharing a campsite at Davidson River Campground in Brevard, NC. Dora and I had just finished pitching our tent when we were joined by fellow photographer Amy Little.

Dora has worked for ACE Hardware the past 15 years. She will officially retires on July 1. ACE Hardware gave her a big send off on June 9th at Lake Lanier Islands, complete with a stay in a lake house and a houseboat dinner cruise on the lake. Gifts included roses and an engraved crystal plate to commemorate her time at ACE.

Landscape photographers can face difficult lighting challenges. Photographers have developed techniques to resolve these challenges, including the use of filters, composites, and HDR. In this article we will examine the use of filters as a means of resolving many of the these lighting challenges. Keep in mind that no single technique is appropriate 100% of the time. There are times when a composite or an HDR sequence is more appropriate.

This year Dora and I did a little something different for our 2011 October cruise. We sailed out of New York on the MSC Poesia. My brother Don and his wife Beth arranged the cruise. In addition to Don and Beth our group consisted of Gary and Susan Moll. We had sailed with Gary and Susan along the west coast of Mexico a few years ago. Also cruising with us this time were Gary's two brothers Frank and his wife Diana, John and his wife Kathy and Gary's sister Christa and her husband Jim. They were all awesome and it was great fun to sail with them.

On July 9, 2011, Dora and I took a little different water adventure, white water rafting down the Chattooga River.The Chattooga River is where the movie "Deliverance" was filmed and we rafted many of the same rapids as featured in the movie. We went with two other couples who are friends of ours. David and Franziska Heinze, David and Franziska live in Germany. Scott and Jamie Gross live in the Atlanta area. David, Franziska, Scott, and I all work for Siemens.

Eight Catalina 22s sailed from Apalachicola on Saturday October 9, 2004. The trip was documented in MainBrace in an article titled “Hooligan’s Apalachicola Eight”. If you read the story you may recall a stopover made by two boats, Rhapsody in seA and Hooligan, at Little St. George Island.

Coastal cruising was one of the things Dora and I had in mind when we purchased our Catalina 22, so when Fleet 77 announced a Region 3 cruise we got very excited. I asked Bob Endicott, Cruise Captain, for a recommended list of supplies. We learned Bob and Trish live and sail big on their C22. They provided us with a "cruisers guide" complete with photographic illustrations, menus, GPS waypoints and many other useful tips. We followed their advice and at the end of the cruise we were glad we did.

Two year’s ago (2002) Paul Gallant (Hooligan) put together a trip down the Apalachicola River. The trip, known as Hooligan’s Chattahoochee Coup, started with 8 Catalina 22s on Georgia’s Lake Seminole and wound its way 106 miles down the Apalachicola River to Apalachicola, Florida. From Apalachicola the boats sailed west to Panama City and on to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. You may have read about that trip in MainBrace or Mainsheet.

Fleet 77 is well known for their annual Northern Gulf Coast Cruise, which has attracted C22 sailors from all over the country and Canada. The cruise is approximately one week long and follows the Intracoastal Waterway from Ft. Walton Beach, Florida to Wolf Bay, Alabama and back. This year Fleet 77 offered a second weeklong cruise. Paul Gallant, owner and skipper of Hooligan, came up with the idea for this cruise and did the research and planning. It soon became known as Hooligan’s Chattahoochee Coup. Understandably, one may not want to spend an extended cruise or brave an ocean passage on a smaller boat such as a Catalina 22, but adventure awaits the skipper of even the smallest yacht. Hooligan’s Chattahoochee Coup was just such an adventure.